An effort to bar Illinois residents from buying more than one handgun a month has failed.
The measure got only 53 of the 60 votes it needed to pass the Illinois House, but the sponsor could bring it back for another vote later.
Democratic Representative Luis Arroyo calls his bill a reasonable response to gun violence in Chicago.
* 2:00 pm - The woman who called tree-climbing kids monkeys is not stepping down…
A suburban Chicago delegate backing Sen. Barack Obama is now expected to keep her spot at this summer’s Democratic National Convention, reversing an outcome the Illinois Democrat’s campaign had reported a day earlier.
“Ms. Ramirez-Sliwinski is an elected delegate and we respect her decision to represent the campaign at the convention,” Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement.
On Tuesday, LaBolt had said the trustee in suburban Carpentersville had decided to step down after she used the word “monkeys” to describe two African American children.
“It is clear that the incident was a misunderstanding,” LaBolt said.
As an elected delegate, Ramirez-Sliwinski’s decision is her own. Obama’s campaign had been told on Monday that she planned to step down.
* We seem to always have bad news to report here. How about a spot of positivity for a change?
State Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, announced this week that he has donated all of the overtime pay he received for the special sessions called by Gov. Rod Blagojevich during last summer and fall’s legislative standoff.
Legislators received a per diem of $125 per day for 37 days and $129 per day for five days, resulting in a total of $5,270 paid to each legislator in overtime per diems, totaling more than $1 million.
Like many others, Moffitt said he disagreed with calling the special sessions because the House and Senate leaders had not reached any agreements and no legislation could be considered for a vote. So, he decided to donate all of the $5,270 to charity, above and beyond what he normally gives.
The amount of the gifts ranged from $25 to $750 and went to 29 different recipients, including a number of city organizations, including the Galesburg Public Schools Foundation, Galesburg Rescue Mission, Orpheum Theatre, Discovery Depot, Galesburg Veterans Memorial, FISH food pantry and Carver Community Action Agency.
* 10:55 am - Not that I believe a single word that comes out of Stu Levine’s mouth, but this is worth noting. According to Levine, Gov. Blagojevich wanted Tony Rezko to monitor David Wilhelm’s success at winning contracts…
“My understanding was that Mr. Wilhelm’s success before the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board would be decided by Mr. Rezko and that would be based upon whether or not he felt Mr. Wilhelm was deserving of whatever the help he was seeking,” Levine testified.
“Mr. Rezko told me that Gov. Blagojevich and Mr. Rezko wanted to keep track of what clients Mr. Wilhelm had before various boards in the state of illinois and they wanted to keep track of what success he had and what success he did not have.”
Levine continued: “And that it should not be taken for granted that Mr. Wilhelm should be successful on anything (before) a board I was on unless I was specifically told by Mr. Rezko that he wanted him to be successful.”
They wanted “to assess the value of Mr. Wilhelm’s contribution to helping Gov. Blagojevich,” Levine said.
Wilhelm eventually left the state to care for an ailing parent. The rumor at the time, which has since been flatly denied, was that he had a major falling out with Blagojevich. Wilhelm chaired the governor’s 2002 campaign.
Through intermediaries, Levine said he conveyed to Edward [Hospital] officials that Wilhelm was on the outs with the administration. It was part of an elaborate shakedown scheme to convince Edward it needed to hire a corrupt contractor working with Levine if it wanted to get the go-ahead for its Plainfield facility.
What Levine and his confederates did not realize was that the hospital’s chief, Pam Davis, had alerted the FBI about the shakedown scheme. That triggered an investigation that eventually led to Levine’s indictment on a broad range of extortion-related charges.
* In the wake of yesterday’s House passage of a constitutional amendment providing for recall of state officials, Statehouse reporters went over some various obstacles today to getting the amendment on the November ballot.
Both Senate President Emil Jones, who could block the idea or ensure its defeat, and Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson said they needed to review the measure before deciding its fate.
Halvorson is running for Congress and the Rules Committee that she chairs is already bottling up a major ethics bill. If Rules blocks the recall amendment, this would definitely be an issue in her race, so I think it’s a big reason why it might actually make it to a standing committee, where it may die.
* The Senate only has until May 4th to approve the amendment, and the Sun-Times looks at the history of constitutional amendments in Illinois…
The last time a constitutional amendment passed either chamber was eight years ago.
The last time a proposed amendment was acted on by both the House and Senate and went before voters was 1998.
And the last time all of that happened and the state Constitution actually was amended was 1994.
* Despite all this, the Tribune editorial page continued its drumbeat…
That said, Jones and his Democrats have so many ways to game this: They can bury recall legislation in a dead-end committee, they can change it in ways the House won’t accept, they can ignore it.
Or Jones and his fellow Democratic senators can give Illinois citizens a voice. If the senators, or the citizens, don’t want this amendment, they’re free to vote against it.
What Jones and Co. aren’t free to do is ignore the overwhelming majority of Illinois voters who expect to see a recall amendment on the ballot when they go to the polls Nov. 4.
This is not a defense of Blagojevich. We’re as disgusted by the stalemate in Springfield as everyone else. But recall powers, which first require approval by the General Assembly and then Illinois voters on Nov. 4, would stick around well after Blagojevich leaves office, undermining effective government.
* If this study is accurate, then it’s a strong case for fixing a major problem…
More than 18 working-age Illinoisans die each week due to a lack of health insurance, according to a report released Tuesday by a health care advocacy group. […]
Families USA has released similar studies for all 50 states and said the reports are the first to give a state-level look at deaths stemming from a lack of health insurance. During 2006, the group estimates 960 Illinoisans between 25 and 64 died because they lacked health insurance.
The group made its estimates based on methods used in two previous studies. The Institute of Medicine estimated that 18,000 U.S. adults died in 2000 because they did not have health insurance; the Urban Institute estimated that number stood at 22,000 adults in 2006.
According to a U.S. Census report that averaged data from 2004 to 2006, 13.6 percent of Illinois residents are without health insurance. Nationally, 47 million people, 15.8 percent of the population, are uninsured, according to Census data.
* Read the full report here. Other state reports can be found here.
* More from the report…
* Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 in Illinois who died because they did not have health insurance was more than 6,100.
* Across the United States, in 2006, twice as many people died from lack of health insurance as died from homicide.
* Uninsured Americans are up to four times less likely to have a regular source of care than the insured.
* Uninsured adults are more than 30 percent less likely than insured adults to have had a checkup in the past year.
* Uninsured adults are more likely to be diagnosed with a disease in an advanced stage. For example, uninsured women are substantially more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer than women with private insurance.
A new report indicates a minimum-wage earner would have to work 97 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in the Chicago area. […]
By traditional measure, housing is no longer affordable when individuals or families must spend more than 30 percent of their gross income on the expense.
A just-released study by Housing Action Illinois found that someone who makes the minimum wage, $7.50 an hour, would have to work 64 hours a week to pay for a typical two-bedroom apartment in Springfield. The organization figured rent and utilities for such an apartment would total $623 a month
* The full report is not yet posted online (or at least I couldn’t find it).
* Last week, Eric Zorn quoted Rep. Monique Davis’ tirade against atheist activist Rob Sherman during a House committee meeting…
Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy — it’s tragic — when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.
I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know?
I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous–
Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?
Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!
Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court—
Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.
* Yesterday, liberal MSNBC host Keith Olbermann gave Rep. Davis his nightly “Worst Person in the World” award. Watch it below…
* Other than Zorn and Olbermann, Rep. Davis’ comments have been all but ignored by the mainstream media, although a post at Daily Kos has over 1,400 comments as I write this.
The one Statehouse reporter who has picked up on the story, as I told subscribers yesterday, was Scott Reeder with Small Newspapers. He had this snarky comment in his latest column…
Illinois politicians have a long history of being tolerant of crooks, adulterers and liars — as long as they believe in God.
* One of the reasons this has gone mostly unreported locally is that strange statements are often the norm at the Statehouse. Last night, some pals of mine and I were discussing the dumbest things ever said in Springfield, and one of the goofiest was former Rep. Willis Harris’ objection to a bill that would have closed some parks at dusk. Harris said many of his constituents were too poor to buy a watch, so they wouldn’t know when it was dusk.
Let that one sink in for a minute.
* Rep. Davis is a Barack Obama supporter, after refusing to back him in his 2004 Democratic Senate primary. Obama hasn’t yet been asked about her comments, unlike Obama’s Illinois delegate who was ticketed by Carpentersville police for telling a group of kids to “quit playing in the tree like monkeys” and then had to step aside.
In a congressional race Democrats believe they can win, candidate Dan Seals of Wilmette reported this week that his campaign had raised more than $613,000 from nearly 2,000 contributors during the first three months of this year, giving him an estimated $750,000 heading into the spring campaign season.
As the award-winning “superstar'’ principal of Chicago’s Nobel Elementary, Mirna Diaz doubled school test scores as she fought the crack houses, gangs and poverty outside her schoolhouse door.
Tuesday, she walked into court and fought a 42-count indictment, charging her with embezzling about $35,000 from the West Humboldt Park school she served as principal for 20 years. She pleaded not guilty
“By now, there should have been a new HR chief. The new chief should be a highly-qualified politically neutral individual. By now, there should have been a list of Shakman-exempt positions and job descriptions of these positions. Finally, the county should have presented a plan to the (court) setting out its strategy to measure existing patronage practices,” Nowicki wrote.
Gayles replied, “I will not argue with you. … There is a slight increase in cost relative to the administration of contracts.” But, he said, the city would ultimately save money because there would be fewer contract amendments increasing the costs.
Bennett said neither the press nor the IHSA gave up anything in the deal. “What it does change,” he said, “is the ability to tell newspapers how to run their business.” Newspapers get access to the games and the IHSA can still have its own photographer.
After a review of the Marion VA Medical Center, Dr. Ralph DePalma, the VA’s national director of surgery, recommended allowing certain surgeries. Minor outpatient procedures for low-risk patients will resume on May 8, officials said Tuesday.
Hospitals in Rockford and around Illinois are in line for another $470 million in additional federal money, thanks to a law signed Tuesday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
* As I wrote in my syndicated newspaper column this week…
If you want recall added to the Illinois Constitution, your best bet is to vote in favor of calling a constitutional convention this November.
* Burt Constable’s column today had these quotes from Dawn Clark Netsch…
“Probably the single thing that may influence voters the most is that they are so turned off by the dysfunctional state government,” Netsch says.
But voting for a constitution convention could open the door for groups with special interests in gay rights, taxes, guns, stem cell research, abortion, freedoms and other single issues they aim to expand or restrict. While stressing that she is striving to keep an open mind, Netsch admits she doesn’t think we need a constitutional convention.
“There is nothing in the constitution that has created these problem or has prevented us from reaching settlements,” Netsch says. “It’s still a good document, even though all of us would like to change one or two items.”
* Question: Regardless of what you think about a con-con, what are the strongest arguments to use with voters to convince them to vote in favor of calling a convention this November?
* The governor continues his quest to “persuade” Downstaters to support his half-billion fund sweep plan (over Speaker Madigan’s objections) by slashing their pet programs…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has put another 450 jobs on the chopping block as part of his latest budget feud with lawmakers.
Workers at the University of Illinois Extension program have been told there may not be money to pay them after May 1 because the governor is threatening to withhold an estimated $18 million.
The Extension serves an estimated 2.5 million residents each year, including nearly 300,000 youths who take part in 4-H programs. It has 77 offices located throughout the state. […]
Faced with what he claims is a $750 million shortfall in funds, the governor has begun threatening to squeeze state programs in hopes of convincing the Illinois House to give him more money.
He earlier said June payments to state universities may be cut. Soil and water conservation districts also could lose $11 million. Some vehicles used by the Illinois Department of Corrections are not being repaired.
Extension is a lifeline to Illinois farmers, so this threatened cut will not go unnoticed.
* Not surprising, but this has to be disheartening for many Republicans…
Freshman U.S. Rep. Phil Hare will not get a challenge this year from the Republican Party. The GOP failed by the Monday deadline to nominate anyone to run against the Rock Island Democrat in the fall election.
That leaves Hare only one competitor: Troy Dennis, a Green Party candidate from the central Illinois community of Mount Zion.
While Republican Party chairs in the 17th Congressional District had considered a group of three to four potential challengers, but none stepped forward to take the job, said Marc Young, chairman of the Knox County GOP.
“For various reasons, they all decided not to,” he said.
Those “various reasons” included the fact that Hare will win big again this year. The Republicans have been taking runs at this seat for years and have always come up way short. The national GOP simply doesn’t have the resources to compete in these sorts of districts in a year like this.
The combined tab for a 10-month term in Congress topped $9 million in the 14th Congressional District, according to just-released campaign finance estimates. […]
Since kicking off his run in May 2007, Foster spent about $3.1 million, a campaign official estimated. The Oberweis campaign reported the dairy and investment businessman expended almost $3.8 million on the campaign he began last August. […]
The National Republican Congressional Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee combined to spend $2.3 million in support of their respective candidates, primarily through TV commercials and mailers. […]
Foster hit his intended mark, Bowen said, with about $2 million in loans to the campaign. Oberweis’ surpassed that amount, reporting $2.8 in loans, based on a copy of his filing provided by the campaign.
* In another race, these remarks by GOP congressional hopeful Steve Greenberg (Melissa Bean’s opponent) were interesting…
One student asked what Greenberg would do about the U.S. occupation of Iraq; another questioned if it was right to force western culture on the Iraqi people.
“The Islamic people, the Iraqi people, are just like us,” Greenberg said. “And it’s our job to lift them up.”
…Adding… As some commenters have pointed out, Greenburg also had this to say…
Domestic issues were a concern for students, too. One asked whether the government should help small businesses compete against super-sized retail chains such as Wal-Mart.
Small business owners need to “suck it up,” Greenberg said, and create niches for themselves in the market.
American small business owners: You’re on your own because “it’s our job” to “lift up” Iraq. Ouch.
* The feds have never whistled in Bill Cellini or Tony Rezko, instead relying on Stu Levine’s testimony and tapes of his phone recordings to put Rezko behind bars. Some might argue that the G didn’t want to undercut their case by asking Cellini for his side, and this might be more evidence to buttress that suspicion…
Levine admitted Monday that despite his many attempts at taping Vrdolyak and Singer, federal agents never asked him to try to record Rezko, nor, said Levine, did they ask him to wear a wire to a party he was invited to on March 25, 2006, by fellow power broker William Cellini.
* Duffy apparently wants to show how Levine and the G selectively interpreted some of the surveillance tapes…
As the lawyers were preparing to leave the courtroom, Duffy told U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve that he would soon like to play some of Levine’s undercover tapes that the prosecution chose not to play in its case.
Duffy argued that the playing of the tapes would best be used as part of his cross-examination, but St. Eve said she would mull the issue overnight. In the alternative, the tapes could be presented by the defense when Duffy puts on his case in chief.
The defense attorney for Antoin “Tony” Rezko implied Monday that star witness Stuart Levine may have intentionally sabotaged his undercover activities toward a target he was supposed to be tape recording for federal investigators.
As Rezko’s corruption trial entered its fourth full week, his attorney Joseph Duffy questioned Levine about a June 10, 2007, tape recording Levine made of former Chicago Alderman William Singer. The recording was one of several secret tape recordings Levine had made for the government up to that point, each time wearing two recording devices.
Levine testified that up to that point, he knew of no instances where either of the recording devices he used had failed. Yet, somehow on that day both were shut off, Levine admitted.
* And this may be more important for what the defense plans to show about the “real” reason that certain votes went the way they did at the hospital board…
Stuart Levine just testified that he met the late Orlando Jones (godson of the late John Stroger) for the first time at a dinner party Nov. 2, 2002. That’s the same dinner party where Levine said he met Tony Rezko for the first time.
But there was something that doesn’t make sense about Levine’s testimony.
Rezko lawyer Joseph Duffy, who has challenged Levine’s memory all day, showed Levine board meeting minutes from three dates in 2002. In those meetings of the Illinois Health Facilities PLanning board, records show that Jones sat on the board with Levine. Jones and Levine had three, half-day long meetings prior to the November dinner party
Joseph Duffy, is trying to punch more holes in Stuart Levine’s credibility as he walks him through efforts to cover his tracks after the FBI first visited him:
Levine said the FBI visit had a “substantial effect” on him, causing him to stop taking illegal drugs and cease other criminal activity.
After making that claim, Duffy asked Levine about a $15 million life-insurance policy he took out after the FBI visit that he had assigned to a North Chicago medical school in an attempt to make it whole for money that he and business partner Robert Weinstein had stolen from the school on whose board they served as trustees.
Levine admitted that he lied on the application about his past drug use. His net worth on the policy application was also greatly exaggerated. Levine said he wrote a $160,000 check for the first two years of policy premiums on the checking account of a non-profit, assisted-living center in Florida that he and Weinstein controlled.
Duffy asked Levine “Again, I go back to the question I asked before, after May 20 of 2004, did you ever again engage in criminal activity.”
“Yes, sir,” Levine responded.
* Then Duffy went after the discrepancy over his drug use. Levine previously said in an interview last September that he went “cold turkey” after the May 2004 visit from the FBI.
But just a week before the Rezko trial began, Levine told investigators something different. In that interview, he said he stopped taking drugs within two or three months after the FBI visit. Levine’s explanation was:
“It is my recollection that it is possible that after May 20 there may have been a time or two that I did illegal drugs that I did not recall whether or not I had,” Levine said. “But that would have been it. . . .”
Newspaper extinction is a frightening prospect, considering the free press’ historic role as a guardian of democracy. Yet how do we keep a watchdog’s eye on elected officials with a bare-naked newsroom?
We see no reason to oppose this bill. The portal, which we hope could be imported into standard database programs, could be put in place for $100,000 or less. So cost is no issue. Unions representing front-line state workers say revealing their salaries would be an invasion of privacy. We don’t see that, given state workers are public employees. Their salaries should be no secret. Legislation similar to this one got support in the last legislative session, though some lawmakers held off, saying they wanted a better bill. This one is better.
Transition Healthcare, whose deal to buy St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island unraveled last month after its funding source dried up, is now close to lining up a new financial backer, its chief executive said Monday.
